m, who came
in too, was shorter.

"Haven't you got any sisters?" I took occasion to say to Wag.

"Of course," said he; "don't you see 'em? Oh! I forgot. Come out, you
sillies!"

Upon which there came forward three nice little girls, each of whom was
putting away something into a kind of locket which she wore round her
neck. No, it is no use asking me what _their_ dresses were like; none
at all. All I know is that they curtsied to me very nicely, and that
when we all sat down the youngest came and put herself on my knee as if
it was a matter of course.

"Why didn't I see you before?" I asked her.

"I suppose because the flowers were in our hair."

"Show him what you mean, my dear," said her father. "He doesn't know our
ways yet."

Accordingly she opened her locket and took out of it a small blue
flower, looking as if it was made of enamel, and stuck it in her hair
over her forehead. As she did so she vanished, but I could still feel
the weight of her on my knee. When she took it out again (as no doubt
she did) she became visible, put it back in the locket, and smiled
agreeably at me. Naturally, I had a good many questions to ask about
this, but you will hardly expect me to put them all down. Becoming
invisible in this way was a privilege which the girls always had till
they were grown up, and I suppose I may say "came out." Of course, if
they presumed on it, the lockets were taken away for the time
being--just in the same way as the boys were sometimes stopped from
flying, as we have seen. But their own families could always see them,
or at any rate the flowers in their hair, and they could always see each
other.

But dear me! how much am I to tell of the conversation of that evening?
One part at least: I remembered to ask about the pictures of the things
that had happened in former times in places where I chanced to be. Was I
obliged to see them, whether they were pleasant or horrible? "Oh no,"
they said; if you shut your eyes from below--that meant pushing up the
lower eyelids--you would be rid of them; and you would only begin
seeing them, either if you wanted to, or else if you left your mind
quite blank, and were thinking of nothing in particular. Then they would
begin to come, and there was no knowing how old they might be; that
depended on how angry or excited or happy or sad the people had been to
whom they happened.

And that reminds me of another thing. Wag had got rather fidgety while
we were talk